Establishing Good Practice Habits By Jake Lenhart

You’ve invested in an instrument and have begun lessons. Now the questions arise, how much practice? How often? And how do I fit it into my schedule?

To get the most out of your lessons, practice is absolutely essential. Students that practice 5 times a week or more outside of their lessons make tremendously better progress than those who don’t.

But how do you fit that in your schedule? There’s only 24 hours in a day! You do it by making your practice time a “habit”.

Brushing your teeth in the morning is something you do every day without thinking about the time it takes, agonizing over how it’s still hanging over your head, or dreading the actual brushing. That 5 minutes in the morning is habit – you never even think about it anymore…. At least I don’t.

Or how I start the coffee pot as the second thing I do after I get out of bed….

Or how I shave before I put my shirt on in the morning….

Or how in the car I turn right, then right, then left, then left, then right, then right and somehow I wind up at work each morning barely remembering the 15 minutes it took me to get there….

Practicing your instrument can be worked into your routine and truly become habit. And like all other constructive habits, it’s effectively free work.

Here are two essential strategies to help establish that habit. First, find a time when you can consistently practice. For myself, I’m an early bird and always ready for work much earlier than I need to be, so I can practice after I’m ready for work before I actually leave. My son has found the time before his daily chores, and my daughter the time immediately after schoolwork. Look through your day, and you’re sure to find some time somewhere.

Second, remember that you don’t HAVE to practice for a long time if you’re practicing daily. Five minutes is enough. If you’re like most people and you tell yourself “Anything less than an hour doesn’t count”, practice time will be something you dread, something that hangs over you, and something you never find time for. But surely you can find five minutes each day.

Once you’ve practiced 5 minutes, you’ll likely find many times through the week, you’ll keep practicing because you’re now enjoying it – this becomes more and more true the better you get, which of course only happens if you practice. But if after 5 minutes you don’t want to practice anymore, that’s fine, too. Stop. There’s tomorrow’s practice session to pick it up again.

Parents, if you’ve got a small child as a student, of course you’ll have to help them establish and maintain this habit. Just like my 9 year old still needs to sometimes be reminded to brush his teeth, he also needs to sometimes be reminded to practice as well. And just like with brushing teeth, once it’s a daily routine without exception, you meet minimal resistance when you remind them to practice.

Stick with the 5 minutes minimum each day at the same time, and I’m sure you’ll be satisfied with the results.